The Legend of Fireteam Shepard
by EnderAcePhoenix
Summary: The story of an exiled Reefborn Awoken, her Ghost and the poor souls she picks up on the way. Rated M for Violence, Gore, Strong Language and Sexual Content.
1. Prologue

_Hello. My name is Nolan. I am a Ghost. In its last effort, the Traveller made the Ghosts. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions. No one really knows how many were created. We dispersed after the Collapse in the hopes of finding extraordinary individuals who could wield the Traveller's light as a weapon against the Darkness on the day it would return. I searched everywhere for my chosen wielder, my Guardian. Little did I know my guardian was a child, a child born aboard a ship fleeing the destruction of Earth at the same moment I was given life by the Traveller. I searched for decades. My Guardian is an Awoken Huntress. When I found her, adrift in Earth's orbit, I was skeptical. She bore markings I did not recognize and claimed she was not from Earth. But I am getting ahead of myself. That bit will come later. As I record this, it is several hundred years later. We've avenged the dead. The thousands of Guardians slain at the hand of Crota can now rest in peace as the dread Prince is dead. I fear what repercussions our actions will bring. Out of my growing unease I have decided that, should we fall, a record should be made. A record of this Huntress and her companions. A nightmare is coming. A nightmare that threatens all we have fought so hard to preserve. Should any come after us, should Humanity be driven to extinction, I will ensure there is proof we did not go quietly into the night. That through the bravery of a very select few, we stood up to our doom and fought back._

"Hey Nolan! C'mere! We need to commemorate this occasion! Okay, Merik, you grab the sword and look heroi-…look you bastard, don't you back sass me. Just take the fucking sword and pose! Thank you. Now was that so damn hard? Now hold that pose. Atlas, help me up on your shoulders. Good. Now give a thumbs up. You ready Nolan? Everyone say 'Fuck Yeah!'"

 _She looks so happy. It wasn't always that way. She was very different when we met. The Exo looks, well, as goofy as ever. He hasn't changed much. The Human's scowl is just a mask I think. He really does enjoy the company of the Exo Warlock and the Awoken girl otherwise he would have left long ago like so many others. With these two she seems at peace. The Human really does look heroic. He looks like the conquering knights of old. The Exo, doing the best he can to hold the Awoken and look victorious. And then the Awoken, her fist raised as high as it will go into the air in triumph. This will be the image I will ensure those who come later will know. They will read of these three and read of their blood, sweat, tears, betrayal, tragedy, defeat but they will also read of their life, happiness, determination, laughter, love but most of all…victory. They will read of this motley crew of Guardians who sacrificed so much for the good of those who will never truly know what it means to be Legend. This is the story of an exiled Awoken princess, an Exo lacking in some common sense and the Human who was cursed with their company._

 _This is the story of Fireteam Shepard._


	2. Chapter 1: Anti-gravity

__

_No one knows how the Awoken survived the Collapse. All we know is they did. They are spectres walking amongst the slain. What they call home, we call a graveyard. My Guardian won't talk completely about her past. She was an assassin for Prince Uldren Sov during Awoken Queen Mara Sov's rise to power in the Reef. More importantly, she is the half sister of the Queen. You would think being a princess would have exempted her from such work but, as it turns out, the Awoken don't have a very high regard for bastards. She won't talk about her time in the Reef beyond her love and respect for her sister and her never ending hatred for her brother. She has spoken about one of her targets but only to explain how she died. I am the only one she's told I think. I suppose what she has revealed is enough to grasp what her time in the Reef was like and why she won't return for more than a moment's time. Our story begins roughly five hundred years ago…  
_

The cell was dark save for the light shining down on a lone, naked figure chained spread-eagled to the ceiling and floor. She was ghost white pale with long red hair, blood dripping from dozens of wounds covering her lithe body, bruises painting large portions of her abdomen and face. One of her eyes was swollen shut, the other glued shut by a large amount of dried blood. She was sure she had at least two broken ribs as it hurt to breathe but she did not know for sure. How long had she been in this cell? Was it days or weeks? For all she knew it could have been a few hours or a few months. What was important was she was getting out or at least die trying. The door opened and the woman tried unsuccessfully to raise her head and open her eyes to see who her tormenter was today. Three men entered the room, cracking their knuckles as the approached the woman.

"I don't know why we keep having to come in here lady. You could end the beatings if you just told the L.T. what he wants to know," one of the men said. "He's right ya know. Not that we don't enjoy using you like a punching bag but it used to be more fun. You used to not make a sound. Now it's all screams and coughing up your own blood. It really is quite messy, loud and, to be quite frank, your blood is hard to wash out," another quipped.

"All he asks is my name. He knows my name," the woman rasped, her voice hardly above a whisper.

"Lady, that doesn't sound like our problem."

The woman shook her head. "No, I don't suppose it is. Before you start, could you clean the blood off my eye please? I'd like to be able to see."

The men looked at each other. "Eh, sure. Dunno why you want to see the hits comin' but what the hell." One approached and pulled a rag from his pocket. He wiped none to gently at her eye until her fiery red eye stared back at him.

"Thank you. Please-," she pleaded, voice quivering. "Oh you hear that guys, she's begging. Haha, little missy, you know the rules. Soon as you start begging, we gotta kill ya. Orders is orders. Go on ask. We'll write it on your body bag," another of the men guffawed as he leaned in close.

"Well what is it?" The woman released her hold on the chains holding her wrists and dropped to her feet, her hands sliding out of the broken shackles.

"Die," she said, voice hard as steel, as she grabbed the man closest to her by the head and twisted with all her might. She grabbed the baton at the dead man's waist as he fell and swung it at the second man, his mouth agape. The strike caught him in the throat and smashed his jugular. As she went to follow up with another swing, the third man lashed out with three rapid and vicious kicks to her groin. The woman grunted in pain as she fell to her knees. The man kept throwing kicks, hitting her shoulders, arms and battered ribs. The man threw another kick but the woman caught his leg and elbowed his other leg in the knee. The knee gave a sickening crack and the man howled in pain and rage. As he fell to the ground the woman picked up the baton again and started battering his face. She stopped only when she was sure he was dead. She fumbled around with his pockets until she found the keys to her ankle restraints.

"H-how? How did you get out?" The woman turned. The man whose jugular she hit was struggling to stand.

"How you ask. Simple, you fucked up. Maybe not you but one of you shits did when you undid my restraints and took me to the showers. My hands were not bound during the trip. I nabbed the keys off of you and palmed them." She picked her way around the bodies of the others and snatched a knife from one. "Now I do believe my last request was for you to die."

The woman eased herself around the door frame and scanned the hallway. She popped back into her cell, counted to ten and then scanned the hallway again to be sure she was alone. _First order of business, find a first aid kit and get patched up. Next, find my effects._ Using the wall as support, she moved as fast and silent as her aching body would allow. _Ah, well that is convenient. Almost too much so,_ she thought as she spotted a confiscations room and a medbay further down. She eased the door open and peeked inside. There was one person in the room, their back to her. The woman slipped silently inside the room and approached the sole occupant. In one swift motion she slipped her hand over the person's mouth and stabbed them at the base of the skull with her stolen knife. She caught the body and almost fell to the floor with it. As she eased the body the rest of the way to the floor, she scanned the rest of the room. A medkit lay on a table to her right and her effects were to her left.

An itch began in the back of her mind. This was too easy. Why would a medkit be in this room? She'd spotted a medbay door further up the hall. Surely a medkit in here was an unnecessary redundancy. She opened the medkit and set to work dressing her wounds. Once complete she went to her effects and dressed. She pulled her guns and holsters off of the wall and strapped them in place over her tank top and cargo pants. Before she could don her armor, she heard voices at the door. She quickly nabbed her own personal knives and slipped them into place and then drew her pistols. She took cover, aimed at the door and waited.

It felt like an eternity but eventually the voices faded into the distance. She moved to the door and pressed her ear to it. When she was satisfied with the silence, she opened the door and checked the hall. Clear. She contemplated donning her armor but decided against it. Her armor was unmarked, nothing to tie her back to those who had sent her and it would take time she did not have to put on. She moved down the hall towards the medbay. She stopped long enough to glance in and check the occupancy of the room and saw it was empty. She made her way past the medbay to an intersection in the hall and took a right. If she remembered correctly, this was the way to the docking bay and she desperately needed a ship. She move quickly and quietly down the corridor, taking detours to dodge patrols but always coming back to the corridor that lead to freedom. Some time later she saw the door to the hanger and she breathed a sigh of relief. Another twenty yards or so and she'd be free. As she broke out into a sprint toward the door, it opened revealing the beaming face of the Awoken man who'd captured her.

"Ah, our guest has finally escaped. Is the mercenary assassin, the Vestian, trying to fly the coop? You didn't think we wouldn't know did you? You aren't as subtle as you think you are, Vestian," he said as he walked slowly toward her.

"Or should I say Canaan Sov. Yes, I have friends in high places. I know who you are and was alerted the moment they sent you to kill me," he halved the distance between them and stopped.

Canaan struggled to keep her face passive. How had he known? The only two who had knowledge of her mission outside of the Crows were her siblings. Uldren watched his Crows so closely this kind of security breach would be unheard of and Mara would never betray her. She scanned the corridor ahead of her trying to find a way out. She was in no shape to fight. She had her pistols and the man appeared unarmed however she noticed the air shimmering around him. He was wearing the energy shield that had foiled her when she initially tried to assassinate him.

"I am genuinely impressed, Colonel," she finally responded. "To have a mole in the Crows is no small feat. You should be proud."

The Colonel shook his head as he chuckled. "You couldn't be more wrong." Canaan's one good eye narrowed. "What do you mean," she asked.

"I have a better question, my Lady, why is a princess masquerading as a mercenary assassin," the Colonel sneered. "It seems a waste of your womanly talents. In any case, I cannot permit you to leave. You are guilty of at least four hundred-eighteen counts of first degree murder, o73 counts of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of attempted murder. I sentence you to death."

Canaan giggled, confusing the Colonel.

"Why are you laughing? I'm about to kill you!" Canaan gathered herself, bringing her mirth under control. "I'm sorry. It's just…do you have any idea how corny that sounded? Seriously? I've heard better dialogue from a porno."

The Colonel roared as he leapt towards her. Canaan turned, running as fast as she could. She remembered a power conduit back down the hallway. If she could manage to throw the Colonel into it, it should short out his shield. She raised her pistol and fired repeatedly as she ran until electricity started arcing violently from the conduit. Just as Canaan glanced over her shoulder, the Colonel pounced. As he tackled her, he wrenched one of her pistols from her grasp and fired twice into her right knee. She screamed in pain and folded, trying to protect her ruined joint. The Colonel stood and mercilessly kicked her in the face, breaking her cheekbone and eye socket, causing her head to snap back and bounce off of the deck plating. Disoriented and in excruciating pain, she was unprepared to fend him off as he grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the wall. She looked across the hall, vaguely aware of the pulsing conduit just feet from her.

"Let me tell you what is going to happen to you. I am going to fuck you. I am going to fuck in every hole you have and once I run out of holes I'm going to shoot you so I can have a new hole to fuck. Then, only once I am spent, I will kill you. Finally I will ship your raped and mutilated corpse to your sister to show that whore what happens when you try to fuck with me," the Colonel said as he tore her shirt from her. "Much better," he sneered as he stared at her bare chest.

He picked her up by the throat again and smashed her head against the bulkhead several times before dropping her. He knelt at her feet and admired her helplessness. "Now I do like it when they fight so please, for me, resist."

Canaan looked him in the eye. "With pleasure," she rasped as she kicked him in the face with her good leg. While her foot came into contact with the energy shield, preventing him from being hurt, it did have the desired effect of pushing him into the pulsing power conduit. The Colonel's shield fizzled and popped before finally short circuiting and exposing him to thousands of watts of electricity. Canaan pulled herself up onto her good leg. She held onto the bulkhead with one arm as she aimed her remaining pistol with the other. She fired into the Colonel's convulsing body three times, once in the head and twice in the heart. She looked toward the hanger bay door.

With only one usable leg, it looked like it was miles away. She hopped down the corridor, each jolt sending new waves of pain up and down her spine, amplifying the horrendous pain already in her head and knee. She almost fell. Almost gave up. After what felt like an eternity, she made it to a ship and crawled into the pilot's seat. She nearly passed out during her quick preflight check and undocking. She set the autopilot with her rendezvous coordinates and fell back into the seat. The ship slipped from its moorings and rocketed away from the hanger and into space. Canaan looked out the window. _Good. Still in the Reef. Hopefully we're somewhat close to the Outpost. Uldren is not going to be happy when I get back._ She needed to stay awake. She knew she had a concussion, several broken bones and was bleeding quite heavily from her right knee. She looked at the ETA before her on the screen. Three hours. She could stay awake for three hours. 

_Three Hours Later…_

Canaan ship stopped at the rendezvous. She looked for her contact as best she could with her blurring vision. She saw a small ship like shape moving towards her. She opened hailing frequencies and broadcast a single word.

 _Vestian_.

She prayed to whatever gods would listen that she would get back the friendly response. The seconds crawled by like hours. Her comms pinged with a single word response.

 _Destiny_.

Canaan breathed a sigh of relief. "This is the Vestian, requesting permission to dock. I am critically wounded and in need of medical assistance," she rasped over the comm channel. A voice she did not expect came back.

"You're late. Docking permission granted. I will meet you in the airlock," and the channel went dead.

Canaan set the autopilot to dock with the shuttle. She hobbled over to the airlock and waited for the chamber to equalize the air pressure. Once the cycle completed, she palmed open the airlock door and saw that her ears did not deceive her. Prince Uldren Sov, her brother, had been the one waiting for her. The itch in the back of her mind started again. He was not supposed to be here. In the twenty-five years since their parents' death during the flight from Earth, he had never left Mara's side.

"What the happened to you," Uldren snapped, breaking her from her thoughts.

"My Lord, the Colonel knew you had dispatched an assassin. He had knowle-…" Uldren slapped Canaan across her broken face.

"I asked what happened to you, bitch, not about your assignment," he yelled as Canaan fell to the floor in pain.

He had never struck her before. He yelled before, downplayed her successes, bullied her mentally and emotionally but never hit her. His next words surprised her. "You can't rely on other people anymore these days, you have to do everything yourself," he said as he went back to his ship.

Canaan dragged herself up and hobbled to Uldren's ship. "Uldren, what's wron-…"she went to ask but was interrupted by a gun firing. Canaan didn't register the pain. She looked down and saw her right leg had been blow off at the knee. She looked up. Uldren had donned his space suit and grabbed a shotgun. She opened her mouth to speak but was smashed in the face with the butt of the shotgun. She fell back, her left hand reaching out to grab the railing in the airlock chamber.

"No matter what I do, no matter who I send you after, no matter how dangerous the mission, you always come back alive. How? How do you do it? You are a liability that refuses to just go away. You won't die. Why won't you die? You are a hindrance to Mara and I's plans. Your existence is a threat to ours. I'd have killed you outright years ago if not for Mara's undying desire to have you around. She can't see how dangerous you are to have around. No more. I'm done trying to have you killed and this time I am going to just do it myself. I can't shoot you on my ship, that would look suspicious. I do need your leg though," he said as he walked into through the airlock and into her ships docking ring. He grabbed her severed leg and carried it into his ship and stowed it in a locker. Uldren activated the magnetic locks in his boots, gluing him to the deck. "Instead I'm going to space you."

Canaan looked up at Uldren, tears streaming down her face. "If you're going to kill me, please, knock me out or shoot me. Please." She had seen what happened to other who were spaced. It was an incredibly painful death.

"No," Uldren replied, his voice devoid of emotion. He hit several buttons on the console next to the airlock door as Canaan pleaded with him to just kill her quickly. He looked at her and grinned as he ejected the docking ring of his ship. Air rushed from his ship into space as Canaan held onto the railing with a death grip. Uldren sighed as he pointed the shotgun at the inside of her left elbow. She tried to beg him not to kill her, to help her but her words were lost in the rushing air. Uldren fired once and then Canaan was floating rapidly away, her hand still gripping the railing. Uldren activated the emergency airlock door and initiated the pressurization sequence for his ship. He stepped over to Canaan's severed forearm. He smashed the fingers with the butt of his weapon until he was able to break its grip. He collected the forearm and stored it with the severed leg and set course for home. Given sudden my decompression, there was no blood evidence he had shot his younger sister and he had all the evidence he needed to spin a story of Canaan's heroism and tragic death.

 _That was several centuries ago. Something about her physiology has granted her extremely long life. She hasn't aged physically in all the time I've know her. I found her corpse in orbit above Earth. From the scans I ran on her body, she had been floating for two years prior to her body settling in low Earth orbit where she stayed for close to a decade while I searched…other places. I was able to move her into a derelict ship still capable of flight. I was unable to repair all of the damage. I was able to heal her broken bones, internal injuries and repair her face but was unable to replace her arm and leg. Had she not been spaced I might have been able to repair the damage but exposed to the vacuum of space for so long left the option of complete organic regeneration out of the question. I fashioned two prosthetic limbs from the titanium plating on the ship. I am still quite proud of them. When the current Hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6, saw them he was immediately jealous. When I revived her, she was extremely hostile and confused. The last thing she remembered was her brother's smiling face as he gleefully pulled the trigger on the shot that sealed her fate. We spent a month on that ship, getting used to her new limbs, before she would even speak to me beyond yelling threats and curses. During our last week on that ship, she fell into a deep depression. She was essentially dead. Her sister had almost certainly been told of her demise. She couldn't go back to her home. When I went to inform her of the dwindling supplies, she was sobbing. She asked my name. I told her I was a Ghost created by the Traveller to find her. She said she didn't know what a Ghost was or who the Traveller was and she didn't care at the moment. She wanted to know my name. I told her I didn't have a name. She looked at me and said she no longer did either. She stood and stroked my shell with her hand and said, 'Since we're stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, you need a name. From here on out, your name is Nolan, and I guess I'm glad to have met you. My name is Ryuko. Ryuko Shepard. Now let's get this piece of shit on the ground.'_


	3. Chapter 2: Un-Holy Diver

_I had a name now. I had never really thought about having a name. Why would I need one? I wouldn't be the one people would know. They would know Ryuko. Perhaps it made her feel less alone and alone she was. She told me of how she lived apart from her people. She lived a solitary life, only leaving her home when someone needed killing. She told me how she died. I recoiled in horror at several points. I hadn't had much interaction with anyone aside from other Ghosts since the Collapse. Were all of her people that barbaric? Was she? I had serious doubts about my choice to bring her back but it was a choice I was stuck with. Most Guardians who had been revived at this point in time were nothing but skeletons at best. When they had been revived, their Ghost took their base genetic material and reconstituted it. Most Guardians didn't even look the same as they did before they were resurrected. I had a mostly complete body to work with and one would think that would be easier but it wasn't. I had to sift through her ever growing list of wounds. Lacerations covered her back and torso. Bruises painted large portions of her body an ugly mix of purple, green, yellow and brown. She had numerous broken or cracked ribs and a multitude of internal injuries, mostly ruptured organs. She had lost her left arm just above the elbow, her right leg just above the knee and her skull was, for all intents and purposes, shattered. And I had to put all of that back together. When you have instructions and the ability to build a new thing, it is easy. When you have something that looks like it had been run over by a transport ship, it is much harder. From the effort, I had fried my healing unit. If she gets injured, she has to heal the old fashioned way. If she dies, she is gone for good. I do wonder how was she able to fight back with injuries that would have, should have, killed her far sooner?-Nolan_

"Ryuko, we need to get this ship planetside. What are you doing," Nolan asked impatiently.

"I'm looking for a shirt. Don't get me wrong, I love tits just as much as the next guy but I don't want to run around giving folks the wrong impression," Ryuko hollered back from a stack of boxes. "Ah-hah! Right size and everything." Ryuko came out from behind the boxes and strode toward the cockpit with a new black tank top with 'I iz genius' emblazoned on the front.

"I was kind of hoping to find a long sleeve shirt and some gloves but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Just hope where we land is warm 'cause otherwise this is gonna suck. Hey, why don't you land the ship Nolan," Ryuko said as she flopped into the pilot's seat.

"I don't have hands. Or arms. Or anything required to operate a ship," Nolan replied.

"Okay, sure but you do have that little hacky-programmy eye beam thing. You could use that. Could've landed the ship while I was hunting for a shirt," Ryuko said.

"While this is true, this ship's avionics are dead. The batteries cannot afford to run the autopilot which, coincidentally, requires the avionics to work and on top of all that, this ship model requires an organic pilot with arms and hands and feet to land. I have none of those so you have to fly," Nolan grouched.

"Well then we are well and truly fucked," Ryuko growled. "Why," Nolan asked. Ryuko glanced uneasily at her Ghost. "You'll see."

Nolan's voice dropped low. "You don't know how to fly do you?" Ryuko whirled in the seat, her face furious. "I know how to fly the goddamn ship, asshole. I told you I live in the Reef. I've docked with stations, flown into hangers, landed on an asteroid's surface, not entered a planet's atmosphere. Name one asteroid in system that has an atmosphere or noticeable gravity. Just one."

Her Ghost took a moment to think. "Phobos. Asteroid that settled into Mars orbit over a billion years ago. It has both. It was terraformed and turned into a ship yard during the Golden Age."

Ryuko's eyes narrowed. "You live dangerously, Ghost." She turned back to the console and started going through her preflight checks. "The batteries have just enough juice to restart the engines. Inertial dampeners are shot, landing gear are destroyed but the flaps work, most of the maneuvering thrusters need replacing and the heat shields are offline. Great. First time landing on a planet and I don't even have half the shit I fucking need to not get 86'd goddamn time, I'd like for a day of mine to not go tits up," Ryuko lamented as she punched buttons.

Nolan floated up next to her. "You aren't dead yet." Ryuko finished her checks and grasped the flight stick. "Given the events of my life up until this point, you could have fooled me."

She eased the throttle forward and nosed the stick down. The ship shuddered under even the minimal strain as it eased forward. The ship eased downward towards Earth and shook violently as it made contact with the upper atmosphere. Before long the view port was nothing but a wall of fire. "Ryuko, were coming in way too fast and the angle of approach is too steep. Pull up and slow us down!" Ryuko gritted her teeth as she wrestled with the stick and eased back on the throttle. "I can't! The ship is locked at full throttle and the stick is not responding! How high up are we?"

Nolan thought for a moment. "I am not certain but given our trajectory, estimated speed, wind variations an-..."

"Just fucking tell me I don't need a goddamn essay!" Ryuko interrupted, yelling over the noise of re-entry.

" I would guess 15 miles up. Why?"

" I am unfamiliar with planetary atmosphere. Can I breathe out there this high up?"

"No. The highest up you can breathe is 26,000 feet, why?"

"Because I am going to jump out. This ship is beyond fucked," Ryuko replied as she undid her harness. She stood and unsteadily made her way towards the aft as the ship rocked and shuddered violently. Nolan looked out the window and saw the starboard wing had been ripped from the body of the ship.

"What do you mean you're going to jump out? A fall from this far up would render you little more than paste!"

"The escape pod is still functional but the door is jammed and won't shut. What I'm going to do is strap in, launch it, climb onto the top of it, remove it's parachute and attach it to myself."

"That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard," Noland shouted as he followed her.

The port wing was ripped off which caused the ship to buck hard and threw Ryuko into a bulkhead. She pulled herself to her feet and continued towards the escape pod. "Do you have a better one? Staying here, we die. Trying my idea, we may die. I have one pistol with three spare magazines of ammo. I'd like to at least try and live to used them."

"Ryuko this is asanine! Maybe I can fix it!"

"Estimate how far we've fallen since we started arguing?"

"I don't see what that has to d-..."

"How far," Ryuko screamed.

"Another eight miles."

"Then we don't have time for this. Either you're coming with me or you're staying. Choose. Now!"

Nolan hesitated. "I'm coming," he said then dematieralized. "Nolan," Ryuko screamed. "Nolan where did you go?" She jumped in suprise when the response came from her own head. "Don't worry, I'm still with you. I...it's complicated. What you need to know is that I'm never really apart from you. Count to fifteen then launch the pod. We should be under twenty-five thousand feet by then. You should be able to breathe and pull off this hairbrained scheme of yours."

Ryuko nodded and strapped herself into one of the escape pods seconds seemed to creep by like hours. After reaching four, she could take it no longer. "Fuck it," Ryuko screamed as she smashed the launch button. Her world was launched sideways and then started tumbling as the escape pod shot out from the ship. It didn't take long for the tumbling to stop as gravity grabbed hold of the pod, heavy end pointed at the ground. Ryuko unbuckled herself and started climbing up the seats to the open hatch. When she reached the hatch, the wind grabbed whipped at her so violently that she almost was ripped from the pod.

"Nolan, I need a ETA to impact," Ryuko yelled at the top of her lungs.

"3 minutes to impact at current velocity."

Using every ounce of strength she had, she started hauling herself down the side of the pod towards the parachute assembly.

"2 minutes, 23 seconds at current velocity."

Ryuko pulled herself along side the access hatch to the parachute and gripped it with her metallic left hand. She wrenched the hatch with all her might. She pulled it up enough that the rushing air caught the hatch and ripped it off. Her hand caught on the hatch for a moment but it was just long enough that, as the hatch flew away from the pod, her arm was wrenched so hard in it's socket that it almost ripped her arm from her body. She screamed in pain as she lifted her arm back towards the parachute. She grabbed a rail inside the access port and pulled used her damaged arm as an anchor.

"1 minute 36 seconds to impact. Your arm won't hold your weight. You have mostly destroyed your shoulder," Nolan warned.

Ryuko ignored him and locked her the grip in her left hand. She released the pod with her right hand, almost blacking out from the pain in her shoulder as her entire weight was put on it. She reached in and pulled the maintenance released lever which ejected the assembly. She leapt out after it and grabbed a hold.

"One minute until impact."

Ryuko looked wryly at the assembly. The way this model worked, at least from what she had seen, the parachute was kept inside a case the size of a wall locker. When activated, a hatch large enough to fit a person would open and the chute would billow out. It would then take roughly 4 seconds to catch the wind and deploy. If she tried to climb in too early, the chute wouldn't deploy properly and she would die. If she tried to climb in too late, the chute would deploy as intended and she would be thrown out into open air. She had one shot.

"30 seconds to impact."

She popped the release and the chute shot out of it's casing. She counted to two and then slipped in. The chute caught the air and it felt as though she was crushed at the bottom of the casing.

Nolan let out what could only be a machine's version of a sigh of relief. "At current velocity, ETA to impact is five minutes. It will be a hard shot but it won't kill you."

Ryuko nodded and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, they reached the ground. The parachute assembly hit the ground on a hill and started rolling down it. Ryuko was thrown clear. She rolled onto her back and stared at the bright blue sky and started laughing. It started as a chuckle and grew into a hysterical laughing howl.

"Yes! We did it! Nolan, quick pinch me so I know I'm not dead," she giggled. Her Ghost paused and gently tapped her bad shoulder with his casing. Ryuko gasped in pain. "Okay, still alive and very wounded. How bad is it, Doc?"

Nolan scanned her shoulder. "Its bad, very bad. When that hatch blew away, it broke your upper arm in three locations, pulled your bicep and tricep completely off the bone, your deltoid has been torn completely in half and your collar bone and shoulder blade are basically powder. If you want to save your arm, we have to get you to a surgeon and soon."

Ryuko looked at her shoulder and then back to Nolan. "Can you do anything for my arm?" Nolan shook his casing. "No I can't. As we fell, I noticed a settlement about three miles to our east. If we're lucky, there may be a doctor there who can do something. I'll make a sling for your arm so it doesn't get jostled around too badly."

She looked at her shoulder. Bruises were starting to form. "I'm putting this in the win book. Not one of the more inspired ideas I've had though. There was this one time I had to escape a space station by remote piloting my ship a hundred yards from an airlock. I spaced myself and was super lucky I got the ship positioned right. Even half a meter off and I would have been in serious trouble."

As the Ghost went about transmaterializing the proper materials, he sternly started rebuking Ryuko. "Before I say what I want to say, I need to tell you I am having very strong second thoughts about reviving you. I am beginning to think you were a bad idea and I should have left you dead. That being sai-..."

"Then go. Leave. I wouldn't blame you. I've been a loner for a long time, I think I can handle it," she said as she stood and started to walk away.

"Ryuko, stop."

"I mean, we made it didn't we? I don't understand why you're so upset. This kinda thing is the norm for me. You leaving would honestly be best for your health. "

"Ryuko...stop."

"If you are having second thoughts about resurrecting me then why not go find someone else?"

"Ryu-"

"Maybe someone who knits. That would work for you. They don't see many crazy situati-"

Nolan rocketed towards her back and smashed his shell into her ruined shoulder. Ryuko screamed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her shoulder. "I. Said. Stop," he roared, his shell trembling in fury. "I had a choice whether or not to resurrect you and I'm beginning to regret it making it. Ghosts only have one match, one Guardian to whom they bind themselves. I didn't choose you, you were chosen for me, I can't leave! My life is bound to yours. If you die, I die not long after and you seem to be hell bent on dying again! Whether you want it or not, you have a second chance at life. You can throw your life away in a meaningless blaze of pride or you can be what you were meant to be. You could be a light shining in the darkness! A beacon of hope for others to follow and not a weapon for a deranged madman. You have to let me help you. That's what I'm here for and you are making it incredibly hard to do that. You spent a month threatening to kill me and through that I never stopped trying to help you! Today you came up with a hairbrained scheme without any regard to my well being. Given how you decided to make it planet side, I'm thinking you were hoping your plan would fail and you would die but you didn't and, even through that, here I am still trying to help you so fucking let me! You are my Guardian and I your Ghost. I can't leave and you can't make me. If you had listened to me instead of threatening to kill me up on that ship, you'd know this already. The way this solar system is, I am your best friend and the last Traveller-damned thing you want to be your enemy," he yelled.

Ryuko stood, her back to her Ghost. She stared at the sky for a minute, then the ground. She turned to look at Nolan. "Ryuko I-..."

"C'mon, we have a lot of ground to cover," she said as she turned to walk away.

She stopped after a few steps. "Nolan, it just occurred to me, I have never been on a planet before. I don't know what flora and fauna are edible here. I am familiar with north, south, east and west but don't know in what directions they are. I don't know the languages here. I don't know anything about this place. I need your help. Will you help me, please."

"Yes but only because I die if you do. Follow me, I'll lead you to the settlement."

"What about the sling you were making," Ryuko looked at the discarded, half finished rag. "What about it," Nolan said. It wasn't a question. He floated off towards a grouping of trees. "Let's go, it is this way." Ryuko walked over to the parachute. She knelt and pulled her knife. There was a roar from the trees just as she started cutting the parachutes chords. She frantically started cutting the cords. Nolan came zipping back as fast as he could. "Did you hear that?"

"Yes I did and I don't like it."

"We need to, wait, what are you doing?"

"I need to bind this arm before I do anything strenuous. It hurts like a mother bitch and I'd like to not pass out from just pain of my arm flopping all over the place," she said as she severed the chord. She grabbed the cut end and rushed to do the same to the other end. She heard a crashing in the trees and glanced over her shoulder. She saw nothing and went back to cutting. She severed the other end and tied it around her left wrist using her right hand and her teeth. Once she was satisfied with her knot, she set her bum arm across her stomach and wrapped the chord around it and her torso. She tied off the end to her belt. She stood and jumped to make sure her arm was secure. She pulled her pistol and aimed it at the trees in time to see a large four legged creature come lumbering into the field. "What in the good goddamn is that," Ryuko exclaimed. "That is a bear and a hungry one from the looks of it. From what my information tells me, playing dead would be your best bet however given your current physical state it may just decide to try a bite anyway," Nolan replied. "Your pistol should be of sufficient caliber to deter or kill it."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I'd rather not waste the bullets," she replied not taking her eyes off the bear. "Lead me around it. We have got to get to that settlement before my arm is no longer salvageable. How long should it take?"

"Given all current factors, four hours."

"Best get a move on then. We need to get there before the sunsets. Dunno if you know this but Awoken kinda...glow in the dark. I'm white enough as is without making us a glowing meal ticket."

Ryuko followed her Ghost as fast as she could. She could hear the bear dogging them every step of the way. Every now and then she would glance over her shoulder to see the bear closing the distance. The sun was getting extremely low in the sky and soon she wouldn't be able to keep eyes on the bear but it would be able to see her as clear as if it were day. They weren't going to make it. She had to fight the bear. "Nolan, fly as fast as you can and get help. I may need it." Nolan glowered at her for a moment and zipped off towards the settlement. She turned to face her pursuer. She took aim with her pistol. The beast stopped short of her and rose up on two legs and roared. _Oh my shit, this thing is huge,_ she thought to herself. She fired a shot into the bear's underbelly. The bear instantly dropped down to it's paws. It closed the distance between them frighteningly quick and headbutted Ryuko. She was tossed like a ragdoll to the side as the bear continued forward. It turned as she landed and charged again. This time it was intent on biting her. Before it's teeth could find flesh, Ryuko lashed out and kicked the bear in the face. The force of the blow stunned the bear momentarily but only really succeeded in pissing it off. It swiped at her with it's huge paw. The claws caught her in the thigh as she tried to roll away. The gashes were deep but not deep enough to inhibit movement. Ryuko fired off two more shots at the bear and hit with both. The bear smashed her to the ground and stood over her. It lunged down with it's maw wide open. Ryuko tried to dodge the bite but was too slow. The bear's jaws clamped shut on her ruined shoulder. She cried out in excruciating pain. Then the bear started shaking it's head, it's teeth ripping deeper into her flesh. She bashed the bear in the head with her pistol to no avail. She got in a lucky swing and hit the bear's eye causing it to drop her. Ryuko put the barrel of her gun under the bear's jaw and pulled the trigger until the bear dropped on her, pinning her to the ground. It wasn't breathing so she was sure it was dead. She could feel the blood pouring from the dead creature's wounds as well as her own blood from the vicious bite the bear had given her. Her Ghost would return though she wouldn't be dissappointed if he didn't. _I have kinda been a dick to him,_ she thought.

Meanwhile...

Nolan moved as fast as he could. He heard the first gunshot and it urged him to try and move even faster. _Of all the people. Of all the Traveller-damned people for me to have a Guardian, I had to have this one. 'I only have a destroyed shoulder. You go get some help, I'll kill it.' Damnit, Ryuko, I know you don't care for your life but could you at least care for mine?_ Her screams of pain interrupted his thoughts. _Shit, shit, shit, shit._ He heard the screams intensify and then several gunshots, the sounds of combat growing fainter behind him. When Nolan flew into the settlement, night had settled in. People were milling around, talking in hushed tones. They had their weapons out. They must have heard the shots.

"Help, help please! My friend is hurt and she needs help," Nolan yelled. The crowd turned to look at him. A few did so with raised firearms. "Don't shoot, I mean you no harm. I'm just looking for help for my friend. We were attacked by a bear and she sent me to get help."

A man with a badge stepped forward. "I'm Wyatt Holliday. I'm the constable here. We have had a lot of bandit attacks in the last few weeks. How do we know this isn't a trick by you to lure us out of town so you can try and sack us again? Who are you?"

Nolan stared hard at the man. "Constable Holliday, I am Nolan. I am a Ghost created by the Traveller to find those who can wield it's light as a weapon and be heralds of a new Golden Age."

"Traveller, huh? Damn thing ain't moved in going on 40 years. It even still alive?"

"Yes it is. It is badly wounded and will die unless me and my brethren can find a sufficient number of Guardians to beat back the Darkness. Guardians like my friend who will die unless you help me get her back here."

A mountain of a man stepped forward. "Go back to the inn, stranger," the constable said. "We've got this well in hand."

The man looked at the constable and held out his hand, palm face up. In his hand materialized another Ghost. "What this Ghost here, Nolan I do believe he said his name was, said is true. This man is my Guardian. We cannot afford to lose one of our own. If are too apprehensive to go help this woman, we will."

Holliday looked from the Ghost to the stranger. "What's your name son?"

"I am Gregor. I am going to get this woman. I am sworn to protect humanity from the Darkness and if her Ghost says she needs aid then I shall lend her aid."

"Deputy Kidd, you are in charge until I get back. I'm going with this mountain to get our damsel in distress. If we aren't back in an hour, batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst," Holliday ordered. "Yessir," Kidd replied as he snapped a salute. Holliday turned back to Nolan and Gregor. "Let's go, big man. The worst in that forest comes out at night. We need to get 'er before the wolves do. Lead the way, Nolan."

Ryuko had managed to pull herself out from under the bear. She thanked every god she could think of there was not enough light to see her shoulder. It didn't hurt but she attributed that to the shock she knew she was in. She stood, trying to remember which direction Nolan had gone in. She heard voices. One sounded vaguely familiar. She made her way toward unsteadily toward them. She was extremely lightheaded. _I must've lost a lot of blood._ She saw three lights in the distance. Two bright lights so white they looked blue and another more subtle one, probably from a candle or lamp. "Here," she tried to yell. Her voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. "Over here! Help!" She stumbled and crashed to the ground. She thought she heard someone say 'What was that' but couldn't be sure. She picked herself back up and made her way forward again, using the trees as support.

Holliday and Gregor followed the Ghosts. Nolan had assured them he and his companion were alone and Gregor's Ghost said he believed him. Holliday felt uneasy. He was constantly scanning the trees. At any moment things would go south and he didn't want to be caught with his pants down. He saw a faint glow through the trees and then it disappeared. "What was that' he asked.

"What was what" Gregor replied.

"I saw a glow over there," Holliday pointed. Almost as if on cue he saw it again. "See, there."

Gregor squinted. Sure enough, there it was. "Ghosts, go check that out. We will continue in this direction and see if we can find the girl." Gregor's Ghost nodded in agreement and made it's way toward the glow. Nolan looked at Gregor for a moment before following. Several minutes later Gregor and Holliday heard a shout from the direction of the Ghosts. "We found her!"

The two men raced in the direction the Ghosts had gone. It wasn't long before they spotted them and a faintly glowing figure on the ground. "I ain't seen a person glow before. Think it's a disease," the Constable Holliday asked.

"She's not sick. She's an Awoken. There aren't many of them. Dunno why but they have strange rivers of light under their skin. That's why they glow," Gregor responded. He knelt next to the girl.

"This is her," Nolan exclaimed.

"Hear that, Constable? We found our damsel in distress," Gregor grinned."I am a quite content damsel. No knights please. I just need a doctor," Ryuko whispered. Gregor looked at her blood soaked form. "How much of this is yours?"

"Most of it. Some is from where that thing's throat exploded all over me"

Gregor slid his arms behind her knees and her upper back and lifted her off the ground. "Lead the way back please, Constable."

Roughly half an hour later they strode into town. Holliday hurried to find the doctor. Gregor followed at a slower pace. In the light from the windows he could see the sleeping girl's arm and shoulder. What he saw made him wince. Her shoulder and upper arm were torn to shreds. Crushed bones were embedded all through the muscles. If the doctor could save her arm, she would be lucky if she could feed herself with it. He looked up and saw Holliday motioning him to come quickly. Gregor picked up his pace and stepped into the doctor's office. He lay the girl on the designated table and moved out of the way. A robotic man, an EXO, walked in while wiping off his hands. "Will she make it Doc?" The EXO looked over the wounds. After a long moment, he turned to Gregor and Holliday. "She'll make it. Any longer and she would have lost too much blood. I have to remove the shoulder and arm, fashion a prosthetic and attach a lot of nerves. Go get me my assistant. We haven't much time."

 **Review responses**

 _ **cmech54**_ -I wouldn't say a master of words but I do thank you for the compliment. I hope you continue to enjoy this story. The shit has only begun for our hero. ;)


	4. Chapter 3: Worst Day Since Yesterday

_**To all who waited this long for Chapter 3 of Fireteam Shepard, thank you. It has been a rather difficult December/ January. I lost my muse and am trying to find it again. My boss died of a heart attack and I got his job in addition to my girlfriend having a miscarriage. Things are starting to look up though. I am making a concerted effort to write every day and try to continue the story. My prologue started with the death of Crota. I have to at least make it that far.**_

The doctor allowed Ryuko up and about two months after her surgery, informing her that she had exceeded his expectations for her physical therapy and had adapted to her new metallic arm far faster than anticipated. A form fitting black long sleeve shirt, denim cargo pants and a black leather jacket were given to her by Gregor as her last outfit had been shredded. She stepped into the daylight, shielding her eyes. She barely made it two steps from the doctor's porch before she was swarmed by children all shouting questions over each other at her. She sat down amongst them. "Kids, leave her alone. She's been through a lot. Let her have her space," Constable Holliday said sternly as he approached. "There will be plenty of time for her to answer your questions when she's feeling better." The children grumbled as they dispersed. "It's quite alright, Constable. It would have been an adventure for me just as much as them. Where I'm from the kids are quite different."

"Oh I doubt that. Kids are kids no matter where they're from."

"They're very different. Where I'm from all children take an aptitude test when they are three to determine where they would be best used in society. Once that is determined, they only learn what is necessary for them to excel in that field. Curiosity, while encouraged, is only humored within their assignment. Not a body is wasted," she said as she frowned. "Some parents never see their children again and what those kids there just did would have been met with stiff consequences."

"Frankly ma'am, I'm glad these youngins aren't from where you're from 'cause that just sound barbaric," Holliday replied looking down at her. Ryuko stood and started to walk off. "When every day you have to worry about being explosively decompressed or your habitat being crushed by an asteroid collision, the only thing that matters is survival. What others think of how you do that be damned. Such is life where I'm from."

She set out to explore. Ryuko figured she would be here for awhile and she needed the lay of the land. As she walked, she felt the eyes of the citizenry on her and noticed two of the constable's men following her. She was a stranger in a strange land and she knew it. Occasionally she would stop or be stopped by a local, chat for a few minutes and continue on. She spotted her Ghost after awhile. He was helping a man something that looked like a two wheeled vehicle. She walked up and observed them work for a bit. "Okay, try starting it now," Nolan said. The man held a lever and turned a key in the object and it roared to life. "Well I'll be damned, you Ghosts sure are useful," the man turned the machine off. "Never thought I'd get this damned motorcycle to work, what was wrong with it?"

"One of the cylinder heads broke when you rebuilt the engine. Structurally it was incredibly weak and couldn't take the strain of internal combustion," Nolan replied, quite proud of himself. "I repaired it at the atomic level so it should be good as new."

"Well thanks for your help. By the way, your shadow is here, Ghost." Nolan turned.

"Yeah, Nolan. Your ghost is here," Ryuko said.

"Ryuko! It's good to see you're awake. Are you okay? What did the Doctor do? They wouldn't let me see you, are you alright? Did they d-…"

"I'm fine," Ryuko interrupted. She pulled at the neck of her shirt to show him her shoulder. "Left arm is completely synthetic. Couldn't save it. It's just as good if not better than my old arm. I was really surprised by the organic like dexterity in the wrist and fingers. Still swear I can feel it though," she said while demonstrating her replacement limb.

"I took the liberty of discussing lodging for the foreseeable future with the constable. There were many people who offered to take us in for the time being. The constable decided we should be put up with the EXO doctor in case you have any unforeseen medical complications or we could stay with Gregor. He is a Guardian and would be able to assist you with discovering what powers the Traveller has bestowed upon you. Also, given your ignorance of how to survive on the surface of a planet, Gregor and a few others in town have offered to teach you how to survive on your own here on Earth. If I may say so, Gregor seems most smitten with you. Oh and you're being followed by the local law."

"Yeah I know. They've been tailing me for awhile now. Now, two questions and a statement. One, I have powers? Like a super hero? And two, Gregor's got the hots for me? Finally, three, you have no segue skills," Before Nolan could answer a booming voice rang out. "Shepard! We have…"

 _The Reef_

"…a serious matter to bring to your attention, my lord. An asset's beacon reactivated in orbit over Earth four months ago. We didn't want to bring it to your attention until we were certain. Our CO was certain it was a glitch in our tracking system as the asset has been listed KIA for more than a decade," one of the Crows reported, his back so straight Uldren thought it must have been uncomfortable. "Which asset, Corporal? We lost many during the coup."

"Sir, asset serial number Sierra 2571."

Uldren's eyes snapped up from the report in front of him to the man in his office. "I appear to have misheard you. Would you care to repeat that." It wasn't a question.

"My lord, it is asset Sierra 2571."

 _This can't be right. It can't be. She's dead. I killed her myself. There were no other ships in the area. If you want something done right is appears you can't even do it yourself._ Uldren stood and walked right up to the corporal. "Forward everything you have on this to me at once. Then purge your systems of all information tied to this serial number and tell you CO that he and his entire department had better forget about this and forget fast," Uldren said, his voice dripping with venom.

"Yes sir. Right away sir. Very good sir," the corporal said as he scurried from Uldren's office. Twenty minutes later Uldren's computer terminal pinged. He sat and poured over the information before him. Asset beacons didn't just turn back on, it just wasn't in their programming. The beacon behaved like a tracking chip and was wired to the heart of the subject. If the subject died, the beacon transmitted the location of the corpse for approximately a month before shutting down. Theoretically one could reactivate if the subject came back to life but there was no precedence for this. It had never happened. "Where are you Canaan? Why is your beacon on? And why Earth," Uldren mumbled to himself. He had to act fast. If Mara caught wind of this, there would be nothing he could do to prevent her from launching a search and rescue team. Over the next two hours he formulated a plan. He needed to be sure she was alive first. Jumping to conclusions at this juncture could only spell disaster. He summoned two of his most trusted operatives, Boolean and Gemini, twin sisters whose success record was only surpassed by their target. He handed them an envelope each with instructions not to open it until they had cleared Awoken space. It would be a prolonged operation, reconnaissance and careful planning would be key. If she was alive, she would be on high alert. "You can't hide from me, sister. I will always find you."

 _Earth_

 _Ryuko was ecstatic. She was going home. Nolan had found a ship capable of space flight roughly ten miles from the settlement. Even more exciting, she had been lent a horse to get to the vessel. "Don't worry about bringing him back," Holliday had said. "Boy knows where his home is." She said her goodbyes and left. The trip took a little over an hour due to terrain. When she caught sight of the vessel, Ryuko hopped off the horse and ran to the ship. The horse turned and galloped away back towards home. As she inspected the hull of the ship, she noted it was the same class as the ship she had arrived on Earth in._

" _Ryuko. I'm sorry. I can't go with you," Nolan said as he materialized next to her. "My place is here, with the Traveller. Calm winds and fair seas." Ryuko turned to say something to Nolan but he wasn't there. She searched and called his name for a few hours, hoping he would return._

 _Eventually her excitement at returning overrode her sadness that Nolan had left. She activated the cargo door and started up the ramp. Before she made it into the ship she heard a gunshot and she was thrown backwards. She hit the ramp and rolled down it. When she hit the ground she looked down at her chest, a red spot growing larger and larger. She tried to roll over and stand but was shot again, this time in the stomach. She tried to call out but all the air had been pushed from her lungs by the impact of the second bullet. Then the most blood curdling laugh she had ever heard assaulted her ears. She turned her head to look at where the laugh was coming from. Out from the shadows of the cargo hold stepped three familiar faces. In the middle, with a vicious grin, stood herself holding a smoking revolver. To the left stood Uldren applauding her doppelganger and to the right stood Mara, her sister, her eyes filled with wrath. Ryuko tried to scramble away but was quickly pounced upon by Mara and Uldren. She tried to fight them off until Mara hauled her up by the hair and smashed her face repeatedly into the hull of the ship. Ryuko fell to the ground in a heap. She tried to stand but her limbs refused to support her. Uldren savagely kicked her in the midriff over and over. The two older Sovs then pinned Ryuko to the ground on her back._

 _"You traitorous quim," Mara spat. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out about your treachery? You dare allow the family to be implicated in the death of the Colonel? And then fake your own death so you might be spared the consequences of your failure? I never should have taken pity on you. I should have listened to my brother and let him kill you."_

 _"Mara, please, that isn't true. Uldren was waiting for me at the rendezvous and he sho-…" Ryuko was cut off by Mara pulling a pistol from behind her and smashing Ryuko across the face with it. "LIES," Mara roared. Uldren turned to look at the doppelganger._

 _"Meet our replacement for you dear Canaan. Come forward and take Canaan's place as our knife in the dark," Uldren said._

 _As Ryuko's doppelganger approached, she split into two of Mara's personal guard. The masked figures both pulled out a knife and sliced hole in Ryuko's abdomen. She screamed louder than she ever had until Uldren and Mara delivered a quick jab to her throat, silencing her. As Ryuko choked and gagged from the blow, the two guards shoved their hands into the incisions. One grabbed Ryuko's heart firmly while the other tugged at something attached to it. Ryuko felt a tearing as whatever was being tugged at came free. Both guards removed their arms from Ryuko's body and one handed something to Uldren._

 _Uldren dangled the object in front of Ryuko's broken face. "You see this? You should have made sure you disposed of this before you came back. Because of this, I can always find you. Not that I have any need anymore. This time you are going to stay dead." He and Mara stood and turned to walk away. "Ladies, dispose of this trash," Uldren ordered._

 _The two guards nodded silently, grabbed two containers from one of the landing gear bays and started dousing Ryuko in what smelled like fuel. When the containers were empty they threw them to the side and stepped back. Mara looked down at Ryuko with disdain. "There won't be enough left of you to come back this time. Canaan. Stay. Dead," Mara and Uldren said in unison. Uldren pulled out a match, lit it and flicked it at her._

Ryuko screamed as she bolted upright, her shirt drenched in sweat. She frantically took in her surroundings. She was in the doctor's living room on his couch. She ran to the kitchen, scaring the nurse who was preparing dinner for herself and Ryuko, and grabbed a large knife then fled to the bathroom. She slammed and latched the door and sat in the bathtub. She peeled off her shirt and aimed the knife at her torso, just under his ribcage. She plunged the knife in and shrieked. She screamed as she cut a hole large enough for her hand. She vaguely heard a banging on the door and someone calling her name. She dropped the knife in the river of her blood rushing down towards the drain in the tub. She shoved her organic hand into the hole, screaming even louder as the pain intensified. The banging and yelling at the door grew in intensity. She pushed past her diaphragm and lungs and located her heart. She felt all around it until she found the small locator beacon. The door caved in under Gregor's might just as she pulled the chip out with all her might. She quickly smashed it with the knife before she blacked out from the pain. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was the big man's horrified face above her.

Several hours later…

"I'm telling you she was scared shitless. This wasn't premeditated. You know what this is? It's a transmitter. To who or what it is transmitting, I don't know but whoever it is has her so terrified she cut herself open so she could stop them from knowing whatever it is this was sending. You didn't see it when you resurrected her and the doc didn't see it on his scans. Nolan, this is serious. You're mad, we get that. Be angry at the thing that caused her to panic. Don't be upset at her. She knew where to insert the knife and how far she could cut to avoid fatal damage." Gregor's Ghost hovered next to Nolan, trying to calm him. Nolan had been powered down on the desk next to Ryuko when she had grabbed the knife and dashed off. The doctor had been the first to respond, Gregor arrived not long after as he had been nearby and heard the screaming. When Gregor smashed the door in, all Nolan saw was Ryuko's arm covered in her own blood up to her elbow and the gushing hole in her torso. Nolan was about to reply when a shriek was heard from the room Ryuko had been taken to. The two Ghosts rushed to the room to find Ryuko cowering in the corner armed with a scalpel and a swirling purple ball of energy on the opposite wall. The doctor was standing well back from her, trying to calm her down.

"What happened," Nolan demanded.

"Her Guardian powers are starting to manifest themselves. I was inquiring as to the purpose of the device she extracted and she became skittish and hostile. She pushed me away and grabbed the bed pan. When it transformed into a ball of energy, she threw it and it exploded," the doctor replied as the ball of energy faded and eventually winked out.

"Stay back. Stay away from me. I don't know what's happening to me and he is coming. He is coming and everyone is in danger. From me. From him," Ryuko screamed as Nolan tried to float over to her. "Who is coming? Who are you so scared of? Let me help you, Ryuko," Nolan said soothingly.

"No! No. That's not my name. I'm not Ryuko Shepard. That was a name on a locker I saw. I'm not her. I'm not Ryuko. Stay back. Let me go. You all are in danger."

"Who are you then?"

"I…it doesn't matter. You just need to let me go. He'll kill you all."

Nolan and the doctor edged closer. "Who, girl, who?"

She was visibly trembling as she stood, taking an aggressive pose. "My brother. Uldren. He's coming for me."

The doctor rushed forward and tried to disarm Ryuko. She used the EXO's momentum against him and swung him around and flung him to the floor in front of her. She threw the scalpel like a throwing knife. Before it left her hand, it transformed into another ball of energy. When it hit the EXO, it exploded into a large puff of smoke. Nolan saw Ryuko vanish in front of him. Moments later, the window exploded outward. Nolan rushed to the window and saw Ryuko rapidly become visible again, fleeing into the night. He turned to the doctor. "Are you all right?"

"Yes. I am very grateful that didn't turn into a void grenade like the last one."

"She had an overwhelming desire to flee. She is linked to the Void by the power of the Traveller. It appears the powers she was gifted are in line with her profession."

"What is she, Nolan?"

"An assassin. Quick, we must inform Constable Holliday and organize a search party. In her current state, she is more of a danger to herself than anyone else. We need to convince her that she is safe."

 _A half hour later…_

Holliday sighed. He looked at Nolan, the doctor and Gregor. "She's an assassin. I let an assassin in my town. And none of you told me before now. To top it all off, you want to go find her. An assassin. Someone who could kill each and every person in this room before we knew what was happening. Let's say I did authorize you to organize a search party, which I won't, she will not be permitted in this town. Colson is a peaceful place. We don't need or want people of her ilk in this great town. I am denying your request to organize a search party. Doctor, you are forbidden to go looking for her. Imagine the shit we'd be in here if you died. Gregor, Nolan, if you want to find her, go ahead but you do so alone. You will not recruit any of my citizens for your suicide mission. But let me repeat myself just to be clear. She will not be permitted to return here. Now get out. All of you."

As they filed out, Gregor looked at Nolan. "We will get her Nolan. Using your connection to your Guardian and my tracking skills, we will find her. If she cannot return here then perhaps we could prepare a home for her a little ways from Colson."

"You didn't see her, Gregor. She is terrified of this Uldren. She is convinced he is coming to kill her and that somehow her being here would bring harm to everyone here. She wasn't exactly clear so that is all conjecture but I feel it is not too far off from what is going on in her head."

"Either way, we need to find your Guardian. She needs to learn how to discover and control her powers. Until then, she is a danger to everything she meets. It should prove interesting. The void is manifesting differently in her than others I have met. Initially I would say she is a Defender given the vortex grenade however she is smaller than every Defender I have ever met and none of them have had the ability to vanish. My second guess would be a Voidwalker however we run into the issue of the invisibility. They can't do that either. She is neither Titan nor a Warlock. I think, Nolan, we are looking at a new breed of Hunter."

 _Meanwhile…_

Ryuko ran until her legs would no longer carry her. She had run so far through the forest she eventually burst through to a field on the other side. It was a full moon so bright she had no problem seeing. She took a few minutes to rest before continuing, keeping a wary eye on her surroundings. She carefully made her way across the field and came to a road littered with abandoned and wrecked automobiles. Using the cover they provided she picked her way through them, listening for any potential threats. Almost an hour later she happened across a sign that read 'Philadelphia - 40 Miles." She read the sign and decided to stop and sleep for now. She found an empty car and wrestled her way in. The windows were caked with dirt and grime from over the years and the interior had a slightly stale smell. She settled into the rear passenger seat when she was sure no one was watching her and quickly fell asleep. High above her, a small ship descended from orbit toward Philadelphia.

 _The next morning…_

Boolean walked down the ship's cargo ramp and gave a big yawn. She stretched and walked to the edge of the building the ship had landed on. As she looked out over the ruined cityscape her sister, Gemini, stepped up next to her and pulled out a datapad. "According to our intel, our target is roughly 50 miles north west of here. On the other side of something called French Creek Park. The humans built a town on the western side of the park after the Collapse. It isn't large. Population is estimated at around fifty or so individuals," Gemini said flatly.

Boolean pulled a tooth brush and paste of one of her belt pouches. "Do we know who the target is? I don't like having to fly into the fire without knowing who we're supposed to be killing," she said as she prepared to brush her teeth.

"Not as of yet, no we do not. The Crow is supposed to contact us within the hour with our targets dossier," Gemini replied. As she started to stretch, her datapad pinged. She did a double take when she saw the photo attached to the dossier. "Bullshit."

"Who i' iht," Boolean asked as she pulled the brush from her mouth.

"It's her. It's the Vestian."

Boolean rinsed her mouth and looked at her sister with a look of disbelief. "Bullshit. She's dead."

"I know. At least that's what the Crow said. He's never wrong. This has to be an imposter."

"A likely possibility but why would someone posing as the Vestian be here?"

Gemini flipped through the dossier on her datapad. "Crow seems convinced it's actually her. It says here she's listed as MIA assumed KIA for quite some time. Says her tracking beacon reactivated for no apparent reason few months back and shut off again few hours before we got here. We need to assume it is her. I'd rather over estimate our mark than under estimate."

"Does it have her known skill set in there? We knew she was good but her methods were never made known," Boolean asked.

"Nigh perfect marksmanship. Sniper rifles, semi automatic pistols and revolvers are her preferred firearms. An affinity for knives. Black belt in muay thai, karate, tai chi and jeet kune do. This is funny, it just says she can hide anywhere including in plain sight. Nobody is that good. Master trap maker. It says…"

Boolean held up a hand to interrupt Gemini. "So basically she's Batman with guns."

"Yes, yes she is. While it is nice to be able to see what she knows, this still omits a lot. Like her thought processes. Hooray we know what she can do. Now we need to know how she does it and it doesn't tell us any of that. This is eighty-four pages of redaction. All we know is the where and when of her ops. We don't have the how. Even her name and age are redacted. Crow may as well have just sent us a picture that said 'kill me' on it and we'd have the same amount of information," Gemini said, clearly perturbed.

" I may be able to crack some of the encryption on the file. See what Crow doesn't want us seeing. Let's secure and fortify ourselves a base of operations and then I'll get to work on it," Boolean said with a shrug.

 _Meanwhile…_

Ryuko awoke with a pounding in her head and pain in her side. She slowly lifted her shirt to check her stitches. She was relieved when she saw she hadn't broken them. She sat up and listened for any loud noises nearby. After a few minutes she cracked open one of the car doors and peered through the crack. She eased it the rest of the way open and slipped out. She thoroughly scanned her surroundings before making her way cautiously down the road. She was pleased to have all the cover the mass of cars provided but knew that it would also adequately conceal any potential hostiles. About two hours later she came upon what looked to be a bombed out military truck. She climbed in the back to see if it had been picked clean. There was a very long metal box towards the cab of the truck that looked relatively undamaged. She tried opening it but the top wouldn't budge. She looked around for something to pry the top off with and found a crowbar in a toolbox. Using the crowbar she wrenched the top off of the box, causing a loud screech and a metallic bang when the top finally popped off. She reflexively crouched low and scanned around her. For what felt like forever she stared at the tree line expecting something to come out and attack her. When she was convinced she was alone she turned to the contents of the box. She removed the top layer of packing material and almost squealed with delight. Inside she found two 9mm pistols, two thigh holsters, two sound suppressors for the pistols and twelve fully loaded spare magazines. She removed her new found weapons from the box and pulled out the next layer of packaging. Beneath she found a small black long sleeved tee-shirt, a thick belt with what looked to be ammo pouches, a pair of olive green cargo pants and black combat boots. She pulled them out and put them on. After dressing, she quickly grabbed the pistols, attached the suppressors and holstered the pistols. She stuffed the spare pistol ammo in her pockets and then removed the final layer of packaging. What she saw made her silently scream with joy. Before her was a semi automatic sniper rifle with eight box magazines of .338 Lapua ammunition. It had a wooden stock and pistol grip, a high power scope and a bipod. But what really made her most excited was the camo net that covered most of the rifle. She pulled it out and tested the weight. Pleased with her find she more closely examined the rifle, looking for any damage or signs of natural corrosion on the weapon. While checking the stock she noticed something carved into it. She looked closer to see what it was and what she saw made her chuckle. Etched into the stock were several phrases she assumed were names for the rifle. _Shut Up and Get Behind Me. Better than Yours. Closing Time._ All of them crossed out except for the last one. _Patience and Time. "I'm gonna keep that one,"_ she thought. She put the rifle ammo into the pouches on her belt and hopped out of the truck, continuing on her way towards Philadelphia.

***

 _ **Something I'm going to need to address sooner rather than later.**_ _  
This came up in a conversation I had with some friends of mine over PSN while playing Destiny. Weapon calibers. The reason I need to address this is because my friends and I were talking about sniper rifles in particular and one of my friends was certain that Hereafter is a .50 Caliber sniper and I told him the stats don't support that idea. He said the Destiny handbook that came with the game said all snipers were .50 cals. I informed him that no, it doesn't. Every sniper it lists it says fires a 127mm round, or at least mine does. Our characters would have to be 50 feet tall for us to wield a rifle that fires a round that big. What do I mean? A 127mm round is 5 inches. That is the size of round fired by a dual purpose AA gun mounted to a WWII US Navy battleship or the main armament of a USN Destroyer of the same time period. It isn't talking about how long the round is. It's talking about how wide the round is. 12.7mm is a .50 caliber round 127mm is a 5 inch round. So while the Destiny Handbook that came with the Year 1 Collector's Edition may just have typos regarding the caliber of round every gun that is in the book fires, I'm not taking that chance. So each weapon type will have a few real world calibers that every weapon in that category could fire and those calibers will be decided by impact. Hereafter cannot be a .50 caliber because it lacks the impact. It is a medium impact sniper. Black Spindle could be a .50 cal because of its extraordinarily high impact therefore Hereafter will would be more akin to a .338 Lapua. Weapons using nonconventional ammunition like Fusion Rifles and Hard Light as well as swords and rockets (both for obvious reasons) are exempt from this. All of my information by way of weapon stats comes from the Armory on . So here is the breakdown with ingame examples:_

 _Auto Rifles:  
Low Impact: 5mm (see the long barreled version of the FN P90) Necrochasm  
Medium Impact: 5.56 - Monte Carlo  
High Impact: 7.62 - Suros Regime_

 _Pulse Rifles:  
Low Impact: 5mm - Bad Juju  
Medium Impact: 5.56 - Red Death  
High Impact: 7.62 - Lyudmila-D_

 _Scout Rifles:  
Low Impact: 5.56 – MIDA Multitool  
Medium Impact: 7.62 – Fang of Ir Yut  
High Impact: .308 – Jade Rabbit_

 _Hand Cannons:  
Low Impact: .357 Magnum – Last Word  
Medium Impact: .44 Magnum- Hawkmoon  
High Impact: .454 Casul – First Curse_

 _Sidearms:  
All are going to be 9mm due to the very low impact of every one of them being the same._

 _Shotguns:  
All: 12 gauge (I don't use them in game so I don't know any of their stats. Making them all 12 gauge because I am unapologetically lazy)_

 _Sniper Rifles  
Low Impact: .308 – Praedyth's Revenge  
Medium Impact: 338 Lapua – Patience and Time  
High Impact: .50 caliber/12.7mm depending on whose talking – Black Spindle  
The only exception to the Snipers will be No Land Beyond. When I decide to use it, it will be a 20mm cannon. Because Ryuko is one badass bitch and bitches love cannons. Plus I, along with the whole community I think, feel No Land Beyond would have been a viable weapon if only it offered the firepower only a 20mm Anti Tank rifle can._

 _Machine Guns:  
Low-ish Impact: 5.56 – Super Good Advice  
High-ish Impact: 7.62 - Thunderlord_

 _And there we go, our caliber break down. This is how it will be and is not subject to change. It's the future. I will use what rounds I wish.  
_


End file.
